Hi there. I am sure this might have been asked before but I could not find anything, sorry if this is a repeat topic.
What is some of key features between CS-Cart 2.2 and CS-Cart 4.x?
I am sure there is better performance, improved coding, etc …but when I factor in I would also be losing close to $1,000 USD spend on Add-ons and problem fixes for my CS-Cart 2.2.5 store then I am not sure if I should move to CS-Cart 4.
This is just why I am asking about some differences between the two versions. I have not done any testing with a CS-Cart 4.x store yet other than a few trial runs with the online demo. But they do seem almost the same with just a quick glance.
Thank you very much!
The bulk of visible changes are:
V3:
Improved block manager and 960 grid system. Most all layout is block-based.
Move away from 3-column style of customer view and more of single-column view (but configurable via block manager)
Change to Admin UI (improvement)
Some bug fixes
V4:
Added style manager. Combined with block manager, gives admin a lot of control over styling.
Mult-store from single DB (pain in the ass for 90% of merchants) - different from V3 style in that there is no longer a PRO version (single store).
Adds an API but not sure how much it's used. There are no triggers that I'm aware of so it's a 'server' only, not a 'client'.
V4 combines css/js files by default and makes Google happy. Real performance improvement from this is marginal.
Add a few “social” type addons and got rid of some older ones.
Lots of change for cs-cart internal use as they move to a SaaS model and is where most of the new bugs come from. Very little value for the merchant.
New Admin UI again (I prefer the V3 version)
Some bug fixes and lots more bugs
No compatibility with earlier releases for addon developers. Existing addons need to be almost re-developed from scratch.
V3 didn't really help performance in my opinion.
And V4 got most of its gains from simply including the gzip module in .htaccess (you can/should do this yourself in V2/V3).
This is by no means an exhaustive list. I'm snowed/iced in so have nothing better to do that sit on cs-cart forum on a Sunday afternoon. But I still run V2.2.5 on my site because it does what I need it to do.
Thanks for sharing those insights on each version. Do you have any familiarity with the security holes that may be present in v2.x and v3.x?
[quote name='Tim Hensel' timestamp='1391922968' post='177121']
Hi there. I am sure this might have been asked before but I could not find anything, sorry if this is a repeat topic.
What is some of key features between CS-Cart 2.2 and CS-Cart 4.x?
…
[/quote]
Hello Tim,
You can also have a look at this article with some visible examples of differences http://www.alt-team…oming-soon.html
[quote name='2020' timestamp='1392012570' post='177151']
Thanks for sharing those insights on each version. Do you have any familiarity with the security holes that may be present in v2.x and v3.x?
[/quote]
Hello 2020,
As far as I know CS-Cart keeps an eye on this issue and as soon as the security hole is found or reported by someone, CS-Cart fix it and send the instruction how to apply the fix. Currently, there shouldn't be any known holes in CS-Cart 2 and 3, they all should be fixed.
Best regards, Alt-team
Thank you tbirnseth & Alt-team! That information does help! 
I did see with searching that there is a way to also import the 2.2.5 data into the latest 4.x version. Is this function built in to the CS-Cart 4 version, or is it a pay service like ######### (Which I used when originally going from CubeCart to CS-Cart 2). I guess that my biggest concern is with going to Cs-Cart 4 and it having a negative effect my current store SEO…(plus I don’t want to manually have to paste over product reviews, product filters, etc)
Your mileage may vary. It “seems” to do a pretty good job with most things. You should do a test site in V4 and then do a store import from your V2.2.5 store and spend lots of time verifying that everything you need was done correctly. Then you can do the swizzle to have your V4 store become the production site and do the update of orders and customers from your V2.2.5 store.
Note: the more time you spend between doing the 1st import and the final increases your risks.